Crazy
by AshlynnCoy
Summary: Missing scene from ESB. Between the maintenance bay and the mynocks Han corners Leia into a very important conversation.


Leia was sitting at the dejarik table. Had been since she'd reappeared from wherever she'd vanished to when Threepio had interrupted the two of them in the maintenance bay.

When Threepio had interrupted them _kissing_ in the maintenance bay.

Han had thought he was getting somewhere. She'd only gone so far as to admit she liked him "occasionally," "maybe". But she _had_ kissed him, and that was something.

And she had been the one to kiss him, not the other way around. He had made sure of that. It was one thing to put his lips right close to hers and make his intention to kiss her perfectly clear, but it was quite something different to kiss a woman without her express consent. And Leia had been fighting the idea until the moment her lips came up and took charge.

If she was going to sit there and try to pretend that kiss had never happened, he had a few choice words for her. She'd spent… hell, he didn't even know how long, pretending she didn't have any feelings for him and he'd pretended right back. OR maybe he'd pretended first. Hell, he didn't know.

But what he did know was that a sure-fire way to make this whole messed up thing more miserable would be if the two of them were about to spend however long it was going to take to get back to civilization hiding from each other.

Han looked over at Leia where she sat. He could see the tension in her jaw. She was waiting for him to leave.

But he wasn't about to.

He wasn't about to let her off the hook on this one. There was a bantha in the room and he was going to get it out in the open.

Now.

For once and for all.

He moved to stand in front of the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Can we just call this off?" he asked. Leia's eyes moved to look at him, but the rest of her stayed stock still.

"Call what off?"

"This…" he said, gesturing at the air between them. "Look, say it's been goin' on for years or for hours, I don't care- it doesn't really matter. But you and me both know we've been doing everything we can to keep this from happening."

"To keep what from happening?" she asked with an exaggerated shake of her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"That," he answered sharply, "that is what I'm talkin' about. Us. Fightin whatever this is."

"Whatever what is?"

"Can you stop it?" he implored then, "Please?"

"I don't know what I'm supposed to stop!"

"This is the part where I say 'of course ya don't' and walk away. Only this time I ain't walkin' away," he said. Han slid onto the bench across from her and did his best to look her in the eye. "We're gonna be stuck here," he continued once he had her gaze locked on his," for a while. With the hyperdrive as fragged as it is, I got no idea how long and I got no idea where we're gonna end up. But I'll tell you right now, it ain't gonna be a day or two to a safe portage—probably lookin' at weeks if we're lucky. So rather than us both bein' miserable the whole time, can we just stop? Can I just say I'm nuts about ya?"

Leia's face blanched and her eyes got wide.

"Yeah, your highness," Han went on, "you heard that right. You got me. All right? I'm done. I'm done tryin' to pretend you don't drive me crazy. We're cooped up in a real small space, and _you kissed me_ ," he reminded her. "So I'm gonna ask: can we both call off the act we've been puttin' up for however long it's been now and just say 'yeah, there's somethin' here'?"

Leia opened her mouth to protest again, but stopped short. She took a deep breath and averted her eyes. She folded her hands on the table, squeezing her fingers together as she allowed herself a tentative nod of her head.

"There now, see…?" he asked, reaching out to take her clasped hands in his, "was that so hard?"

"Han," she said softly then, "I…"

"Nah, sweetheart," he countered. "Ya ain't gotta start tryin' to say stuff you're not ready to say. Just… let's agree there's somethin' here and stop tryin to fight it? I'm crazy about ya, Leia, and I'm sick of pretendin' I'm not. And I just don't wanna be stuck here for ages lyin' to ourselves and each other, actin' like nothin's happened when we both know what did. All right?"

Leia nodded again.

"All right," she said.

Han squeezed her hands as he leaned across the dejarik table to kiss her forehead.

"All right," he repeated. "Now I'm gonna go and see what I can do about that hyperdrive. Do me a favor and head up to the cockpit? Keep an eye out? I doubt anything's gonna mess with us in here, but just in case…."

"I can do that," she replied, smiling at him as she stood. "And Han," she called after him as she was about to round the corner into the corridor.

He turned back to face her, trying his best to keep a silly grin off his face. He wasn't sure he'd ever been so relieved in his whole life. That conversation may have been an even more important step than the kiss had been. In fact, there was every chance that conversation might lead to _more_ kisses moving forward.

"Yeah, Leia?" he replied: no epithets, no diminutives, no needling or guff.

She was looking at him with an expression he'd never seen her wear. She shook her head and shrugged as she looked back at him and said,

"You drive me a little crazy, too."


End file.
